The Rio Olympics are over for another four years and I’ll be honest and say that I only watched a combined time of about…10 minutes of it. One part that I really look forward to are the closing ceremony shenanigans, however I didn’t get a chance to watch them as I was busy on It’s Japan, Man duties over at SMASH! for the weekend (post on that coming very soon!)
However I did hear about the amazing teaser that was put together for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics including the awesome appearance by Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. In case you missed it, you can catch it below!
PS. I’ve had a hard time uploading this video as YouTube keep blocking it due to copyright so I found it on Vimeo. Hopefully it stays up for a while!
SMASH! 2016 is getting closer and closer and we’ve just heard the exciting news of a second guest being confirmed. Japanese voice actress AI NONAKA has been confirmed as attending SMASH! this year. I’ve included all the important information below straight from the press release.
Sydney, NSW, June 6th, 2016 — Sydney’s #1 Japanese pop-culture convention, SMASH! Sydney
Manga and Anime Show, continues to surprise fans by expanding its spectacular guest list. Following
the guest announcement of Naruto voice actor Hideo Ishikawa, SMASH! is ecstatic to reveal the
second official guest for SMASH! 2016: Japanese voice actress AI NONAKA.
AI NONAKA is a prolific Japanese voice actress and singer who is best known for her roles as Kyouko
Here’s a new trailer for the upcoming 3DCG film starring everyone’s favourite blue robotic cat, Doraemon. The movie is being co-directed by Takashi Yamazaki who previously helmed Always, Space Battleship Yamato and Ryuichi Yagi who has Friends: Mononoke Shima no Naki on his resume.
Based on the 1st episode of the manga, “Mirai no Kuni Kara Harubaru to”, Stand by Me Doraemon will be hitting Japanese cinemas on the 8th of August.
Doraemon is a staple in Japan, having been around for a number of years now. To mark the release of his new feature film, Doraemon: New Nobita’s Great Demon ~Peko and the Exploration Party of Five, magazine publisher, Shogakukan, will be running a promotion for the blue cat.
Starting back on February 15th and spanning up until April 7th, Doraemon will be on the covers of 51 different magazines. Here are just a few of the magazines he’ll be showing up on.
It’s been a while since we checked but let’s see how the movie theatres in Japan are doing. Time to have a quick peek at what’s showing and what’s on top of the charts.
The brand spanking new ‘Doraemon’ movie which we earlier reported on has taken out the first spot on the weekend while ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful‘ claimed the second spot. The cinemas didn’t fare too well on the weekend as there was an issue with the air quality in Japan which kept a lot of people indoors where the World Baseball Classic was being broadcast on television.
J-Pop trio, Perfume, were recently in the limelight but not for the release of a new album, well not really. The trio was announcing at a press event that they were supplying the theme song to Doraemon’s latest animated feature, Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Dougu Museum.
Doraemon of course being the robotic blue cat and his sidekick, Nobita. You can catch a clip from the movie below as well as a snippet of Perfume’s track, Mirai no Museum,plays over clip. The track is also doubling as the end theme to the current Doraemon anime television show.
The film opened a few days ago on March 9th, you can get a glimpse of the album art for the cd sleeve.
In surprising news today, we hear that the loveable, blue robot cat, Doraemon, has been banned in Bangladesh. The reason being given is that youngsters watching the Hindi dubbed anime are having difficulties learning their native tongue of Bengali.
Hasanul Haque Inu, the Information Minister, announced on Friday, during a Parliament session, that an official order had gone out to television stations broadcasting Doraemon to stop immediately and take it off the air. He said, “The government doesn’t want children’s educational atmosphere to be hampered by Doraemon.”
The ban has come about after several local publications were worried that the show featured the characters speaking in Hindi instead of the local Bengali which they believed would cause problems and learning difficulties with young children. Shahriar Alam, a ruling party lawmaker, laid down thew law recently saying that foreign cartoons should only be allowed to air if they were dubbed in Bengali.
PS. Thanks to Japandaman reader, Laura, for submitting this story.
Another year draws to a close as car manufacturer, Toyota, throws another commercial into the mix for their ReBorn campaign representing their new “Crown” car company. This commercial features French actor, Jean Reno, as lovable Japanese robotic cat, Doraemeon.
The ad also stars comedian/actor/director Beat Takeshi seen in MXC, Battle Royale and Zatochi, as a reborn reincarnation of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, from the Sengoku era.
Japanese robotic cat, Doraemon, will be having a birthday…in 100 years time! According to the Doraemon timeline, he was born in a factory on September 3, 2112, so that’s a little under 100 years from now. The cat was the brainchild of Fujiko Fujio, otherwise known as Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko.
Who knows, maybe in 100 years time, Doraemon will be a reality? What do you think?
Japan is currently airing an ad on tv featuring a couple of familiar faces, first up there is Hollywood heavyweight Jean Reno alongside Atsuko Maeda from Japanese power group, AKB48.
In the ad, Doraemon shows a young man, Nobita san, how much better life could be if he had a car with Maeda playing the role of Jaiko who hops along for the ride. It’s pretty cute and very Japanese, check it below!
